Sisters at Heart

A promotional image from the 1970 Bewitched episode, "Sisters at Heart" includes the main characters of Bewitched; Dick Sargent (Darrin) holding David Lawrence (Adam), Elizabeth Montgomery (Samantha), and Erin Murphy (Tabitha).

A member of my Facebook group posted the leading photo of this post. Copied below is my answer to the photo question, "Anyone know the doll [Tabatha] (Erin Murphy) is holding?"

Vogue Baby Dear One dolls in sizes 18 inches with rooted hair and 12 inches with molded/sculpted hair are perfectly posed.

That's Baby Dear One by Vogue, the larger doll in the attached photo. This picture (of the Bewitched cast) is from the Bewitched episode Sisters at Heart when Tabitha's Black friend, Lisa, spent the night. The episode, written by a group of Black high school English-class students who had attended the set of Bewitched, involves a racist bigot who thought Darrin was married to a Black woman when he visited the Stephens' home unannounced and Lisa answered the door. The bigot thought Lisa was Darrin's daughter and that Darrin was married to a Black woman. Read more at the link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters_at_Heart

I remember discussing the 1970 "Sisters at Heart" episode of Bewitched several months before the recent Facebook group post. However, I cannot find the past discussion thread. Because I want to document the important details of this Bewitched episode to include that a Black high school English class  wrote the episode under the direction of their teacher, and Baby Dear One is the black doll that Tabitha holds in the photo, I sat down to write this post and to create an installation in my virtual black doll museum for the Baby Dear One dolls in my collection.

An AI-generated answer to my question, "Who was the Thomas Jefferson High School teacher in Los Angeles, California whose students wrote the Bewitched episode Sisters at Heart?" provides specific details. 

Marcella Saunders was the (23-year-old African American) English teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angeles whose 10th-grade students wrote the Bewitched episode "Sisters at Heart."

How it happened
Saunders noticed that her students struggled with reading and writing at a high school level, and were more familiar with television than poetry or short stories. She decided to teach her students using a television series they liked, and contacted the studios for Bewitched, Room 222, and Julia. Only Bewitched responded.

Venetta Rogers
Venetta Rogers played the role of Lisa Wilson (Tabitha's "sister at heart"). The following quote is from the Facebook page of The Bewitched History Book by David Pierce:

In 1970 Ms. Rogers' mother was the Assistant Superintendent for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and was instrumental in organizing and bringing together 23-year-old teacher Marcella Saunders, Elizabeth Montgomery, and Bill Asher (Elizabeth Montgomery's husband). Ms. Saunders' 10th grade English class wrote what would become "Sisters at Heart." Consequently, her (the assistant superintendent's) daughter Venetta was chosen for the part of Lisa in the episode.

Today Ms. Rogers and her mother continue to cherish the memories of their wonderful experience and will always think of “Bewitched” as their favorite series. Ms. Rogers loved working with the cast; especially Elizabeth Montgomery and Erin Murphy, and felt like a close friend to Erin. She will never forget how kind the Murphy family treated her during and after the episode. Ms. Rogers says that this was one of the most delightful and fun experiences of her life.

*****

I am impressed that a young educator used a relatable approach to teach her struggling English students and that Elizabeth Montgomery welcomed the script of what became her favorite episode of the Bewitched series. 

18-inch Vogue* Baby Dear One

The 18-inch doll, Baby Dear One, designed by Eloise Wilkin (notable doll designer and children's book illustrator), was made in different sizes with or without rooted hair. The 18-inch black doll with rooted hair was used as Tabitha's doll in Sisters at Heart. Baby Dear One's release date was sometime after 1964, the copyright year of the head sculpt, but before 1970. Read more about Baby Dear One in a past blog post here. View the Virtual Black Doll Museum installation here.

*In 2014 Vogue Dolls became a victim of political and economic developments which led to the government of China suddenly closing the manufacturing plant and seizing all of the company's molds and products. (The Origins of the Ginny Doll.)

View still images from "Sisters at Heart" here.

View the ending segment of Sisters at Heart here. (Tabitha is seen holding Baby Dear One in this segment.):

Related Link:

The Origins of the Ginny Doll

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There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.

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